Testimonials

In the various roles he has undertaken through the years, Val J. Halamandaris has been a singular driving force behind the policy and program initiatives resulting in the recognition of home health care as a viable alternative to institutionalization. His dedication to consumer advocacy, which enhances the quality of life and dignity of those receiving home health care, merits VNA HealthCare Group’s highest recognition and deepest respect.

- VNA HealthCare Group

I have the highest respect for them, especially for the nurses, aides and therapists, who devote their lives to caring for people with disabilities, the infirm and dying Americans. There are few more noble professions.

- President Barack Obama

Home health care agencies do such a wonderful job in this country helping people to be able to remain at home and allowing them to receive services

Home care is a combination of compassion and efficiency. It is less expensive than institutional care...but at the same time it is a more caring, human, intimate experience, and therefore it has a greater human element...it’s a big mistake not to try to maximize it and find ways to give people the home care option over either nursing homes, hospitals or other institutions

- Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Medicaid covers long-term care, but only for low-income families. And Medicare only pays for care that is connected to a hospital discharge....our health care system must cover these vital services...[and] we should promote home-based care, which most people prefer, instead of the institutional care that we emphasize now.

- Former U.S. Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-CD)

We need incentives to...keep people in home health care settings...It’s dramatically less expensive than long term care.

- U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Home care is clearly the wave of the future. It’s clearly where patients want to be cared for. I come from an ethnic family and when a member of our family is severely ill, we would never consider taking them to get institutional care. That’s true of many families for both cultural and financial reasons. If patients have a choice of where they want to be cared for, where it’s done the right way, they choose home.

- Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services

A couple of years ago, I spent a little bit of time with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice and its president, Val J. Halamandaris, and I was just blown away. What impressed me so much was that they talked about what they do as opposed to just the strategies of how to deal with Washington or Sacramento or Albany or whatever the case may be. Val is a fanatic about care, and it comes through in every way known to mankind. It comes through in the speakers he invites to their events; it comes through in all the stuff he shares.

- Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence

Val’s home care organization brings thousands of caregivers together into a dynamic organization that provides them with valuable resources and tools to be even better in their important work. He helps them build self-esteem, which leads to self-motivation.

- Mike Vance, former Dean of Disney and author of Think Out of the Box

Val is one of the greatest advocates for seniors in America. He goes beyond the call of duty every time.

Val has brought the problems, the challenges, and the opportunities out in the open for everyone to look at. He is a visionary pointing the direction for us.

- Margaret (Peg) Cushman, Professor of Nursing and former President of the Visiting Nurses Association

Although Val has chosen to stay in the background, he deserves much of the credit for what was accomplished both at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, where he was closely associated with me and at the House Select Committee on Aging, where he was Congressman Claude Pepper’s senior counsel and closest advisor. He put together more hearings on the subject of aging, wrote more reports, drafted more bills, and had more influence on the direction of events than anyone before him or since.

- Frank E. Moss, former U.S. Senator

Val’s most important contribution is pulling together all elements of home health care and being able to organize and energize the people involved in the industry.

- Frank E. Moss, former U.S. Senator

Anyone working on health care issues in Congress knows the name Val J. Halamandaris.

- Kathleen Gardner Cravedi, former Staff Director of the House Select Committee on Aging

Without your untiring support and active participation, the voices of people advocating meaningful and compassionate health care reform may not have been heard by national leaders.

All of us have been members of many organizations and NAHC is simply the best there is. NAHC aspires to excellence in every respect; its staff has been repeatedly honored as the best in Washington; the organization lives by the highest values and has demonstrated a passionate interest in the well-being of patients and providers.

- Elaine Stephens, Director of Home Care of Steward Home Care/Steward Health Systems and former NAHC C

Home care increasingly is one of the basic building blocks in the developing system of long-term care. On both economic and recuperative bases, home health care will continue to grow as an essential service for individuals, for families and for the community as a whole.

- Former U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

NCOA is excited to be part of this great event and honored to have such influential award winners in the field of aging.

- National Council of Aging

Health care at home…is something we need more of, not less of. Let us make a commitment to preventive and long-term care. Let us encourage home care as an alternative to nursing homes and give folks a little help to have their parents there.

- Former President Bill Clinton

Latest Issue of CARING Focuses on Health IT for Home Care & Hospice

October 18, 2013 04:36 PM

The latest issue of CARING magazine will soon be available. The in-depth subject this month is heath information technology and how it is changing the home care and hospice landscape.

For the issue, Richard Brennan, Executive Director of the Home Care Technology Association of America (HCTAA) – a NAHC affiliate - served as Guest Editor. Below are his introductory notes to the issue reprinted in their entirety.

What if we could envision the future of health care delivery and determine the fundamental components of the new standards of care that will be needed to support patient-centered, personalized, empowered health care in America? What technologies will drive the delivery of health care to the home? What business and clinical practices will be leveraged to support value-based longitudinal care coordination? And how will technologically sophisticated home care agencies interact with other providers in the spectrum of care to coordinate care and support new models of care? In this issue of CARING, we provide readers with a series of articles and case studies – stepping stones to innovation – to determine a path forward.

Chris McGurn starts our technology coverage with our cover story. Several members of Congress got a hands-on telehealth demonstration when representatives from NAHC and its affiliate Home Care Technology Association of America (HCTAA) visited them in their offices on Capital Hill. NAHC President Val J. Halamandaris stressed the benefits and cost-saving potential. “Once you see how this technology works, we hope you will become an advocate of it,” said Halamandaris. “There’s a real premium in keeping people out of the hospitals, which these devices help to do.”

Our overview of the issues surrounding health IT implementation within the home health and hospice community includes advancements in health information technology and other technologies. The integration of health IT into health care is a challenging subject, but our primer article focuses on the challenges and opportunities for home care providers to consider in navigating the complex landscape of developing health IT standards.

We also included case studies from home health agencies and their vendor partners on technologies that support improved referral and communications, telehealth for improved clinical outcomes, efficiencies, and reducing hospital readmissions, mhealth technologies for electronic documentation for mileage reimbursement and more accurate scheduling, and also data mining to unlock problems in clinical protocols and service delivery.

We asked agencies to tell us how they have implemented technology to change the way they do business and enhance the services they offer. In this issue, you’ll find six case studies:

Health Resource Solutions of Illinois used a customizable EHR to raise standards of care, improve communications and lower administrative costs.

Centura Health of Colorado merged their call center and telehealth to decrease 30-day hospitalization rates and increase the quality of life for their older adult patients.

Ambercare of New Mexico used technology to manage costs, improve the quality of care, and give patients the care they need at home.

Pardee Home Care of North Carolina used analyses of their agency visit and OASIS data to improve Outcome scores.

Bristol Hospice selected an electronic medical record that was flexible yet supported their six sites across the country even in times of a disaster.

As the executive director of the Heath IT Now Coalition, Joel White has one of the best perspectives on how technology is radically changing the face of home healthcare and the challenges we face in the field, in our back offices, and on Capitol Hill.

The Coalition he manages is a diverse group of organizations representing patients, health providers, health insurers, employers and unions that have come together to help integrate information technology into healthcare. He shares his own personal insights on home care as seen through his mother’s experience and recommends that home care agencies leverage their advanced use of health IT to participate in new models of care established by the Affordable Care Act and also make the case to Congress that technology is invaluable in delivering quality home care.

Our quest for innovation in health care – for a revolutionary new approach to the delivery of home care – will employ advancements in technologies, changes in payment policies and methodologies and the mustering of organizational resources on a wide-ranging scale. Since this will have to be a unifying process of innovation, we also hope that the successes of pioneering home care agencies in this endeavor will offer us clear examples of excellence in care delivery and a path forward.

Please enjoy, discuss, and share our technology issue with your colleagues, friends and also the decision makers in your community.